Modern armies no longer use shields, in the traditional sense. One could often differentiate between families and clans, who often used similar shield designs for generations. Shields were often decorated with images to unsettle the enemy, from carrion foul and dogs to griffons and gods. The bowl-like construction of the shield and its brazen rim/overlay lent great strength to the design, and could deliver bone-crushing blows in well-trained hands. Often made of wood overlaid with bronze, a hoplite’s shield was as much for offense as it was for defense. Shields were big in the ancient world, and the Greeks called theirs either the aspis or the hoplon (from which Hoplites got their name). Modern body armor also often come with all sorts of straps that you can secure holsters, ammo pouches, flashlights, radios, and other tools to, spreading out the weight of your equipment and making today’s soldier much more dexterous than he would otherwise be. In addition, ceramic plates offer protection against heavier rounds, and break to disperse the energy of those rounds. Many modern designs utilize specially formulated “sands” and gels, which force bullets to lose most of their kinetic energy, rendering them little more than a heavy blow. Modern body armor is amazing, due both to its light weight and the fact it can possibly stop a bullet (if you’re lucky). Body armor then was almost exclusively fastened on the left side, and the soldier’s shield would protect the literal chink in the armor (even if you were left-handed…).
Richer families could afford to get forged bronze thoraxes poorer families utilized the linothorax, which was made of layers of linen which were cut, compressed, and lacquered to form a stiff yet flexible chest piece, which might be covered over with leather or studs/scales of bronze.
Bronze panoply full#
Body armor has always been expensive ( a full panoply of helmet, shield, thorax, greaves, sword and spear cost anywhere from 30-100 drachma), and in ancient times was usually passed down in families. The main form of armor soldiers use is body armor, which the Greeks called a thorax (where we get the word for bugs). I had a dream the other night about a ritualized single combat where I was wearing an ancient panoply, and I have to say, it wasn’t as bad as I would have previously thought. While this topic seems rather mundane, armor is a large part of war, and Ares is rarely seen without it, and when he is, he’s generally not wearing anything other than a helmet.
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